Intraparty Competition Under Proportional Representation

Abstract

In most West-European democracies political representation is conceptualised as a link between voters and political parties, and a substantial part of research in political science has been devoted to explore different facets of this link. In proportional electoral systems using open or flexible lists, elections are however not only battles between, but also within parties. Alongside nationally oriented political debates between parties and their leading politicians, there are constituency-based battles, where candidates running for the same party compete to get the most votes. Despite the overall trend towards a more personalized political arena, and systemic changes which gives voters a greater say over which candidates that become elected, political science research continues to be heavily dominated by the interparty dimension of politics, i.e. the competition between parties. Far less prominence is given to the distribution of power within parties, i.e. the intraparty dimension of representation. The mechanisms behind individual electoral success and the strategies used by candidates in order to be competitive on the intraparty dimension is hence still very much unexplored territory. The panel invites papers that address different aspects of intraparty competition under proportional representation, and that contributes to deepen our understanding of the mechanisms that shapes individual electoral success under these systems. Is the outcome at the intraparty dimension determined by personal characteristics only, or is there a role for the message under such information demanding settings? What are the campaign strategies applied by candidates in order to cultivate a personal vote? How are these patterns shaped by contextual factors?